Parkit Market, kegs and cakes

If you’ve ever thrown a keg party in Dallas, chances are, you’ve been to Parkit Market. The convenience store at Greenville and University opened 50 years ago, and has since become the premiere place in Dallas to get a keg.

That’s because when Tony Todora, whose parents opened the store in 1962, attended SMU, his college pals asked him if he could get a keg. Soon, the store was providing kegs for every SMU party, and you guys, it was the ’60s. There were some parties.

Now the store offers 760 beers by the keg. But that’s only part of the story. The store’s deli serves sandwiches, burgers, homemade chili and soup.

Ann Todora of Parkit Market

And Ann Todora, Tony’s 90-year-old mom, makes homemade Italian sausage 25 pounds at a time, as well as sauce and meatballs, for subs, and cakes. Wonderful cakes.

When I interviewed her for a story about the store’s anniversary in the June Advocate, she showed me a picture of herself posing with Le Bare dancers on St. Patrick’s Day: “I didn’t know they were strippers!” she says. But she keeps the picture in a frame and revels in people’s reactions when she shows it to them.

And she asked me the same question she asks most people she meets: “What kind of cake do you like?”

A few days later, Tony called to say I could pick up my coconut cake any time.

Moist, delicious and pretty! Ann Todora is a fine, fine American. Her cakes can be ordered for purchase at Parkit Market.

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